Twelve ships arrive Lagos ports with petrol, others

Twelve ships carrying various products have arrived at Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports, waiting to berth, the Nigerian Ports Authority said in its daily publication on Wednesday in Lagos.

The shipping position of the NPA is a document that shows the volume and types of cargoes that are brought into the country on a daily basis.

It also shows the type of vessels involved in the affreightment of the goods just as it also indicates the ports of discharge and the shipping agencies attached to the vessels.

The NPA said four of the vessels contained petrol while the remaining eight ships would berth with containers, general cargo and diesel.

A News Agency of Nigeria report quoted the NPA as saying that 20 ships carrying buckwheat, frozen fish, bulk sugar, container, buckwheat, general cargo, frozen fish and petrol were expected at the ports between March 12 and March 29.

The PUNCH had earlier reported that in January and February 2019, Nigeria imported a total of 986, 492 metric tonnes of petroleum products representing 1,387,410,984.2 litres of fuel.

Frozen fish topped the nation’s imports for the month of February, as the country reportedly imported 2.463 million metric tonnes of the product in the month under review.

The figures also showed that the fuel import in January was higher than February as a total of 705, 185 MT of fuel was imported compared to only 281,297 MT imported in February.

According to the shipping position document, 24, 266 MT of Aviation Turbine Kerosene, which is also known as Jet A1 of aviation fuel was imported during the period under review against 98,512 MT of Automotive Gas Oil, otherwise known as diesel, imported in the same period.

A breakdown of the figure also showed that while a total of 902,392 MT came through the Lagos ports, 84, 100 MT was brought into the country through the Calabar port.

The shipping position also indicated that Premium Motor Spirit (petrol), led other petroleum products.

Other imports topping the chart include bulk sugar with 318,400 MT and wheat with a total of 263, 552 MT in the last two months.

For general cargoes, a total of 126,119 MT were recorded for both months, while 118, 688 MT was recorded in February, 7,431 MT came into the country in January.

A further breakdown of the figure showed that frozen fish recorded 23,165 MT as against 15, 344 MT of containerised cargoes, while bulk salt import stood at 23 MT.